The inventive concept relates to electronic memories. More particularly, the inventive concept relates to memory devices having a magnetic tunnel junction.
Memories of today's electronic devices must operate at high speeds while consuming low amounts of power. More specifically, there is a demand for memory devices which can perform a read/write operation at high speeds at a low voltage. Magnetic memory devices are in the limelight as next generation memory devices developed to meet this demand. Magnetic memory devices are not only capable of high speed operation but are nonvolatile.
Conventional magnetic memory devices include a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The magnetic tunnel junction has two magnetic bodies and a tunnel barrier layer disposed therebetween. Resistance of the magnetic tunnel junction can be changed by changing the direction of magnetization of the two magnetic bodies. Specifically, the magnetic tunnel junction has a relatively high resistance when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic bodies are anti-parallel. On the other hand, the magnetic tunnel junction has a relatively small resistance when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic bodies are parallel. The value of the resistance of a magnetic memory device can be sensed as the logic state of or data stored by the device. Thus, the resistance of a magnetic memory device can be changed to change the data recorded or stored by the magnetic memory device.